Inside NBC News: Sacred Heart Greenwich Students Experience the Media World

The Intro to Filmmaking students went on a field trip on January 29 to NBC Studios, located at Rockefeller Center in New York City. When the group arrived, they participated in a question and answer session with Janelle Rodriguez, Executive Vice President of NBC News, and Yvette Miley, Executive Vice President of NBCUniversal News Group. The executives discussed their career paths and shared advice on journalism, storytelling, and choosing careers based on personal interests rather than prestige.

“I did not study journalism,” said Ms. Rodriguez, “I studied rhetoric, then film production, and I kept working all through college, ultimately leading to an NBC station.” Ms. Rodriguez said flexibility was important when choosing a career, saying “there is no right answer… what really matters is that you end up doing something you love.”

A main topic of conversation was how technology has completely changed how people get their news, and makes the process of finding the truth more difficult. Ms. Miley asked the students: “When you get up in the morning, what’s your information source? What is the first thing you do?” The class unanimously agreed it was to pick up their phones. “Are you constantly on it all throughout the day?” Ms. Miley followed up. Again, everyone agreed. This differs from how previous generations consumed news and creates new challenges in understanding current events. 

Ms. Rodriguez challenged the students, saying “How do you know when you see something on Instagram or TikTok, how do you begin to try to figure out, is this real?” The increasing use of artificial intelligence only increases the likelihood of misinformation or disinformation. This highlighted the importance of relying on trusted news sources.

After the Q&A session, the students had lunch with Liz Connor ‘06, who is Vice President of Consumer Packaged Goods Partnerships at NBCUniversal. Her role involves working with companies that advertise during NBC programming. After graduating from Sacred Heart Greenwich, Ms. Connor studied history and art history at Johns Hopkins, and served in sales and account executive roles at NBC, LinkedIn, and Amazon before taking her current position. Ms. Connor and the students shared their experiences and memories of Sacred Heart Greenwich, and how the film program has grown over time.

Many students said it was interesting to see how many people and steps are involved in producing a show, and how it built on the skills they learned while working on Sacred Heart Greenwich's “Today from the Heart.” 

The group’s final activity was a panel session with Tom Llamas, NBC News Anchor and Senior Correspondent, Natalie Bennett, NBC News Segment Producer, and Micki Fahner, a Senior Producer on the Top Story team at NBC News.

Like the morning discussion, the producers described journalism as a field where curiosity and flexibility matter more than having a fixed career plan early on. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I went to college,” said Ms. Bennett, “sometimes you don’t know until you go down a path and your gut tells you if it’s right.”

The panelists emphasized hard work and perseverance as necessary to advance in your career, along with a willingness to start at the bottom of an organization.“I started my career at ABC News as an intern,” said Ms. Fahner, “then came here through an entry-level rotational program. I worked my way up.”

The demands of the news business were highlighted by Mr. Llamas, who said he had his bags packed if he needed to leave for Iran on a moment’s notice, given recent major news events. He also plans to cover the Super Bowl next weekend and the Olympics which begin in Italy on Friday, February 6.

For everyone, this requires an enormous amount of flexibility. Ms. Bennett said, “we’ve written scripts and built a whole show and then you throw it all out because breaking news happens.” Ms. Fahner noted the personal demands of the job, saying “news is 24/7. It’s not a 9 to 5 job, you work weekends, holidays, and plans can change instantly.” The panel highlighted the amount of work that goes into producing the news.

The visit highlighted the many things that go into the business of journalism and television production. The visit also showed that there are many different paths to success in the media industry.